Paramount Comedy 1

Paramount Comedy 1 is a television channel shown in the UK and Ireland. As the name suggests, it is owned by Paramount Pictures (aka Viacom) and concentrates on comedy. Paramount was not the first all-comedy channel in the UK; that distinction goes to The Comedy Channel, which had closed some years earlier.

Pre-launch

The channel was originally intended to launch a UK version of Nick at Nite on the same channel as Nickelodeon, as in the US, but the name of the station was changed to The Paramount Channel prior to its launch on 1 November 1995.

History

The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, including such eclectic offerings as Beauty and the Beast, several anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming like The Magician. The drama shows were later dropped and the schedule became 100% comedy, hence the change of name to the Paramount Comedy Channel in early 1997. The 'Channel' part of the name was dropped on 1 July 2002.

It originally aired every evening after Nickelodeon UK's closing at 7pm until the early morning, until soon after the introduction of Sky Digital, where greater space for channels on the network allowed it to become a channel independant of Nickelodeon. Some analogue cable TV systems (which had no room to allocate a separate space for Paramount) still share the original channel-sharing scheme.

Other Channels

After no longer having to timeshift with Nickelodeon, the station increased its broadcasting hours, and was joined on Sky Digital by Paramount Comedy 2.

Paramount Comedy +1, (a time-shift channel - exactly the same as Paramount Comedy, but 1 hour behind) was launched on Sky Digital channel 128 on 30 August 2005.

Shows shown on Paramount Comedy

Paramount Comedy is well known for bringing popular American shows to the UK, such as Frasier, Becker, Scrubs and Two and a Half Men. It also shows various Cult comedy shows such as Trailer Park Boys, South Park and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. It briefly showed the Irish comedy programme Podge and Rodge's A Scare at Bedtime.

The channel also prides itself in showing British comedy, such as Minder, Live at Jongleurs, and Time Gentlemen Please, and supports stand-up comedy in the country, as well as showing stand-up from comedians such as Jack Dee and Lee Evans. It has signed a contract with Al Murray, "The Landlord".

It also frequently includes a large back catalogue of Channel 4 comedies into their schedule, such as Father Ted, Spaced, Drop the Dead Donkey and Paul Merton - The Series, and some BBC classics such as The Young Ones and Not The Nine O'Clock News.

Paramount Comedy currently shows new episodes of Two and a Half Men, Scrubs, Stacked and Suburban Shootout.

Less high-profile time slots are often populated with classic US sitcoms, such as Cheers, M*A*S*H, Happy Days, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Who's The Boss?, Taxi, and Mork & Mindy.

In recent years, the channel has gone arguably more low-brow and unsophisticated, premiering sleazy programmes of questionable humour such as Sexy Cam and Badly Dubbed Porn.

Teletext Mailbox

Although the channels still have a Teletext service, a popular mailbox feature has stopped being updated. This mailbox has moved on to the Internet at New Mailbox, which is now independent from Paramount Comedy.

External links

Paramount Comedy website.

Comedy | Television channels in the United Kingdom | Viacom subsidiaries